Hazard

  “Oh, Hazard. I can’t bear that this sweet little creature might die like all those others.”

  Without thinking, Erin pressed a hand over his. Squeezed. “We’ll find the answer. I just know we will.”

  Hazard’s eyes narrowed. For a moment he stood perfectly still, absorbing the shock waves that seemed to be exploding through him at the mere touch of her.

  From his vantage point, Cody watched the unfolding scene with a slightly bemused expression. Old Wes Wilde used to say that love never happened when it was convenient. If Cody didn’t know better, he’d guess that right now, while Wes’s son was fighting the bitterest disappointment of his life, he’d just been shot with a double whammy. In the form of Cupid’s arrow.

  Cody figured he’d just keep his thoughts to himself for a while. Because, unless he was badly mistaken, those two didn’t have a clue about what was happening between them. But it would come to them, sooner or later. His guess was soon. Very soon.

  Dear Reader,

  This is a very special month here at Intimate Moments. We’re celebrating the publication of our 1000th novel, and what a book it is! Angel Meets the Badman is the latest from award-winning and bestselling Maggie Shayne, and it’s part of her ongoing miniseries, THE TEXAS BRAND. It’s a page-turner par excellence, so take it home, sit back and prepare to be enthralled.

  Ruth Langan’s back, and Intimate Moments has got her. This month this historical romance star continues to win contemporary readers’ hearts with The Wildes of Wyoming—Hazard, the latest in her wonderful contemporary miniseries about the three Wilde brothers. Paula Detmer Riggs returns to MATERNITY ROW, the site of so many births—and so many happy endings—with Daddy by Choice. And look for the connected MATERNITY ROW short story, “Family by Fate,” in our new Mother’s Day collection, A Bouquet of Babies. Merline Lovelace brings readers another of the MEN OF THE BAR H in The Harder They Fall—and you’re definitely going to fall for hero Evan Henderson. Cinderella and the Spy is the latest from Sally Tyler Hayes, an author with a real knack for mixing romance and suspense in just the right proportions. And finally, there’s Safe in His Arms, a wonderful amnesia story from Christine Scott.

  Enjoy them all, and we’ll see you again next month, when you can once again find some of the best and most exciting romance reading around, right here in Silhouette Intimate Moments.

  Yours,

  Leslie J. Wainger

  Executive Senior Editor

  THE WILDES OF WYOMING—HAZARD

  RUTH LANGAN

  To my own Wild Bunch.

  Pat, my middle son, this one’s for you. With love.

  And of course, for Tom. Founder of the dynasty.

  Acknowledgment:

  I wish to thank Kent Ames, D.V.M., of the Veterinarian

  Teaching Hospital of Michigan State University

  in East Lansing, Michigan.

  Books by Ruth Langan

  Silhouette Intimate Moments

  §The Wildes of Wyoming—Chance #985

  §The Wildes of Wyoming—Hazard #997

  Silhouette Romance

  Just Like Yesterday #121

  Hidden Isle #224

  No Gentle Love #303

  Eden of Temptation #317

  This Time Forever #371

  Family Secrets #407

  Mysteries of the Heart #458

  The Proper Miss Porter #492

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Beloved Gambler #119

  To Love a Dreamer #218

  Star-Crossed #266

  Whims of Fate #354

  The Fortunes of Texas

  Snowbound Cinderella

  Harlequin Historicals

  Mistress of the Seas #10

  †Texas Heart #31

  *Highland Barbarian #41

  *Highland Heather #65

  *Highland Fire #91

  *Highland Heart #111

  †Texas Healer #131

  Christmas Miracle #147

  †Texas Hero #180

  Deception #196

  *The Highlander #228

  Angel #245

  *Highland Heaven #269

  ‡Diamond #305

  Dulcie’s Gift #324

  ‡Pearl #329

  ‡Jade #352

  ‡Ruby #384

  ‡Malachite #407

  The Courtship of Izzy McCree #425

  Blackthorne #435

  Rory #457

  Conor #468

  Briana #480

  One Christmas Night #487

  Harlequin Books

  Outlaw Brides

  “Maverick Hearts”

  Harlequin Historicals

  Christmas Stories 1990

  “Christmas at Bitter Creek”

  RUTH LANGAN

  Award-winning and bestselling author Ruth Langan creates characters that Affaire de Coeur magazine has called “so incredibly human, the reader will expect them to come over for tea.” Four of Ruth’s books have been finalists for the Romance Writers of America’s (RWA) RITA Award. Over the years, she has given dozens of print, radio and TV interviews, including Good Morning America and CNN News, and has been quoted in such diverse publications as The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan and The Detroit Free Press. Married to her childhood sweetheart, she has raised five children and lives in Michigan, the state where she was born and raised.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Gold-tipped clouds hovered over the peaks of the rugged Tetons. A chill breeze swept down from the mountain range and spread across the grazing land, rippling the grass. There was a sense of calm as dusk settled over the vast Wyoming countryside.

  At the moment, the beauty of the scene was lost on twenty-year-old Hazard Wilde, who had been up since dawn. After tending to the herd, he’d driven into the town of Prosperous for supplies, something he did several times a week, even though the little community was located more than fifty miles from the ranch. Then he’d been forced to waste precious time tinkering with the old, battered truck’s engine, hoping he could keep it running for another hundred thousand miles, before turning his attention to repairing a leak in the barn roof.

  Now, with evening falling, it occurred to him that he hadn’t eaten anything except a bowl of cereal that morning.

  Chance, two years older than Hazard, and Ace, at seventeen, the baby of the family, had been immersed in their own chores, until they had mysteriously left several hours earlier, without a word about where they were headed. It took all three brothers, working around the clock, just to stay one step ahead of the mounting bills. At the moment, Hazard was feeling that he was carrying the lion’s share.

  “Hey, Hazard. Big news.” Chance and Ace Wilde pushed their way through the milling cattle until they reached their brother’s side.

  “Your news can’t be as good as this.” Hazard was kneeling in mud, created by melting snow, examining a newborn calf. “This is our future. Right here. Enough of these and the Double W will survive nicely.” He barely looked up. “Well? What do you think?”

  His two brothers waded in and stood looking over his shoulder.

  “Very healthy.” Chance slapped him on the back. “Nice work, doctor.”

  Hazard beamed like a proud father. “Thanks.” He sat back on his heels and watched as the new mother began to lick her infant clean. “It might take me a an
other ten years, but someday I’ll earn that title.”

  Satisfied, he wiped his hands on his filthy jeans as he got to his feet. For a minute longer he watched the scene between mother and newborn, then turned to his brothers. “Okay. What’s your news? Where’ve you been while I was out here busting my hide?”

  “You first.” Chance turned to their youngest brother.

  Ace was grinning from ear to ear. “I just hired a firm to take some soil-boring samples. You know, to check for coal or uranium.”

  Hazard looked thunderstruck. His reaction wasn’t lost on his brothers. “You did what?”

  Ace’s smile faded a bit. He was annoyed that his brother wasn’t showing the proper enthusiasm. “I said I hired a firm—”

  “I heard you.” Hazard looked from Ace to Chance, then back again. “What’d you use for money?”

  “I won a couple hundred last night at Clancy’s. I figured I’d better spend it on something I wanted, before it slipped through my fingers.” Ace was looking pretty smug. “So I gave the Hudson Boring Firm a hundred down, and I’ll pay the rest on monthly installments. And I gave some to Chance.” He turned to his oldest brother. “Okay. Your turn. Tell him your news.”

  Chance was struggling to hold back the excitement, but it was a losing battle. He stood a little taller as he said proudly, “I just bought an oil rig.”

  “An oil rig.” Hazard’s jaw tightened.

  Recognizing that look, Chance reached into his pocket and held out an official-looking document. “Before you say anything, read this.”

  Ignoring the mud and blood on his hands, Hazard unfolded the document, then looked up with barely concealed contempt. “This says oil was discovered on the Hope ranch. What’s that got to do with us? They’re hundreds of miles from here.”

  “It’s worth a risk, Hazard. If the oil’s here, my rig will find it.”

  Hazard’s eyes narrowed. “I’m here trying to set aside enough to pay last year’s taxes, and the two of you are off spending a fortune on some damned toys.”

  “Hey.” Ace’s smile disappeared. “They’re not toys. They could determine our future.”

  “Or sink us deeper into debt. And for what?” When his younger brother started to turn away, Hazard grabbed him by the shoulder. “Listen to me, Ace. The important thing here is the land and the animals. We can’t be blinded by dreams of fast money.”

  “Who says?” Ace shoved his brother’s hand aside. “You think you love this land more then I do? Is that it? Are you saying that just because you’re happy wallowing in the mud with your cows, your work is somehow nobler?”

  “I’m not interested in being noble. I just want to hold on to the Double W. I love this place.” He turned to Chance, who had remained ominously silent. “I would have thought you’d know better. If we keep wasting money on foolish schemes, we’re going to lose everything Dad worked so hard to give us. Or have you forgotten his dreams for us?”

  Now it was Chance’s turn to lose his temper. “I don’t need you to remind me what Dad wanted for us. I’ve sacrificed as much as you for those dreams.”

  “Really? Then how do you explain going into debt for a stupid oil rig?”

  “Stupid? Is that what you think?” Chance’s fist shot out, catching Hazard by surprise.

  From the time these three had been toddlers, this was how they had always worked off their frustration. The act of hard, bruising, physical punishment was like a cleansing when their blood ran too hot for words.

  Hazard reacted instinctively, returning the blow with one of his own.

  “Yeah. Stupid.” He took a punch to the midsection, which had the air whistling out of his open mouth, before he countered with one to Chance’s jaw that had teeth rattling. “And so are you if you wasted good money on it.”

  While Chance was still reeling, Hazard turned on Ace with a snarl. “Instead of mining for coal and uranium, why don’t you mine that brain and see if it’s still there. For all you know, one of your pool-hustling buddies may have already won it, and you just haven’t noticed.”

  He was stunned by the blow that sent him to his knees. He shook his head to clear it. Somehow, when he hadn’t been looking, his little brother had managed to grow a foot taller and acquire some muscles.

  When Hazard got to his feet, Ace moved in, his face contorted with rage. “You think, ’cause I’m the youngest, that I don’t know anything. Well I know this much. You aren’t the boss here, Hazard. And you can’t make me do things just because you say so.”

  “I didn’t say—” Hazard’s protest was cut off by a hard blow to the nose that had blood streaming down the front of his shirt.

  With a grunt of pain he returned punch for punch, until both he and Ace were bloody and winded. When Ace paused for a moment to catch his breath, Hazard used the advantage to shove as hard as he could, sending his younger brother sprawling in the mud.

  Now that his blood was boiling, he didn’t seem able to turn off the rage. That had always been his curse. Slow to anger, Hazard was like an enraged bull once he’d been pushed over the line.

  He turned on Chance, his fists raised in invitation. “Come on. I’ll take you on now.”

  “Damn right you will.” Chance led with a right and followed with a left uppercut that sent Hazard hurtling backward.

  He got to his knees in the mud, then came up in a frenzy, landing a blow to Chance’s midsection that made him double over. When Chance straightened, Hazard hit him with a grazing blow to his temple that had him staggering to his knees, and had Hazard shaking his wrist to ease the pain.

  “Come on. You want some more?” With his fists raised, he stared from one brother to the other.

  Seeing no takers, he felt oddly disappointed. Then, as the anger slowly began to drain away, exhaustion took over. He managed a shaky step backward, before he found himself sitting weakly in the mud.

  For long minutes all that could be heard was the sound of their labored breathing, as the three brothers waited for the last of their temper to dissolve. It was always like this. The fury. The storm of fists. And then a tentative attempt to resolve whatever had triggered the fight in the first place.

  Chance’s voice broke the stillness. “What gives you the right to decide what we can and can’t do with the land?”

  Hazard struggled to calm his breathing. “Because I’m the only one showing any sense. Look around you. This is a ranch.”

  “A ranch buried in debt,” Ace muttered.

  “Maybe. But we’ve got over two hundred head of cattle. With any luck, after this spring calving, we’ll have maybe two hundred fifty.”

  Ace gave a snort of disgust. “If all the calves make it. And then we’ll have two hundred fifty cattle that have to be fed. And slaughtered. And hauled to market.”

  “We’ll do it.”

  “No. You’ll do it,” Ace said. “It’s your baby.”

  “All right. I’ll do it. And you know why? Because we’ve got a hundred thousand acres of prime range land.”

  “There. You see?” Chance looked from Hazard to Ace, then back again. “You just said the magic word. Land. Don’t you see?” He got slowly to his feet, pressing his hand to the dull ache in his shoulder. By morning it would be throbbing, and he’d be stiff and sore in a dozen different parts of his body. His only satisfaction was knowing his brothers would be equally sore. “This land has more to offer than just food for cattle.”

  He held out a hand to Ace, who got to his feet slowly and in turn offered a hand to Hazard, until all three brothers were standing.

  The cattle had moved off when the fighting had begun, giving the three men a wide berth. Now Chance, Hazard and Ace stood, caked with mud, oblivious to the bite in the air.

  “Look at this.” Chance put a hand to Hazard’s shoulder and pointed.

  In the distance, the tips of the Bighorn Mountains were bathed in golden moonlight. “For as far as the eye can see, it’s all ours.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?”
Hazard pointed for emphasis. “Every time I look around, I think about how much it cost Dad to leave us this legacy. He worked himself into an early grave. I just don’t want us to do anything that might cause us to lose it.”

  “We’re not going to lose it.” Chance draped an arm around his shoulders, signaling an end to the feud. “But there’s room enough here for all of us to chase our own dreams. For me, that dream is finding oil. I’ve always believed it’s here. I know it is. It’s just a matter of time until I find it.”

  Ace nodded, glad to see his brothers willing to move beyond their fists. Though, in truth, he enjoyed the battles as much as the truces. His father used to say he’d come out of the womb ready to fight his older brothers for his place in the family. “I’m just as positive I’ll find coal and uranium. It’s been here for thousands of years, just waiting for me to come along and claim it.”

  They both turned to Hazard, who was still frowning and mulling.

  He thought over what they’d said, then slowly nodded, knowing he’d overreacted. “Okay. I guess that’s fair. As long as you agree not to do harm to the grazing land or the cattle. They’re just too precious to me. I guess you could say they’re my dream. And always have been.” He stuck out his hand. “So. Can you agree to drill for oil and dig your mines without harming what’s already here?”

  Chance nodded, then slapped his hand.

  With their hands still joined they turned to Ace.

  After a moment’s hesitation, their youngest brother added his hand to the pact.

  “I’ll go you one better. Let’s race,” he said with a smirk, “to see whose dream brings in the first million.”

  Their frowns disappeared, replaced by matching grins so dazzling, they had set the hearts of every female in the nearby town of Prosperous into overdrive at one time or another.

  “You’re on, Bro.” They lifted their hands over their heads and gave a high-five.

  As they turned away, Ace rolled his shoulders. “I’ll say one thing about ranching, Hazard. It’s sure given you a hell of a punch.”

  Hazard gave him a halfhearted jab, then draped an arm around his shoulders. “Just keep that in mind, Little Brother, if you decide to mess with me in the future.”